'This Week' Transcript: Holder and Giuliani

May 9, 2010

Page 6 of 15

HOLDER: I don't think it's racist in its motivation. But I think the concern I have is how it will be perceived and how it perhaps could be enacted, how it could be carried out. I think we could potentially get on a slippery slope where people will be picked on because of how they look as opposed to what they have done, and that is I think something that we have to try to avoid at all costs.

TAPPER: The oil company BP has a spotty record when it comes to cutting corners and, in some cases, worker safety. Are you looking into the oil spill in the gulf, possible criminal charges, and ways to make sure that these companies -- not just BP, but Halliburton and the others -- are held accountable?

HOLDER: Well, our primary concern at this point is to try to make sure that we keep that oil offshore, that we disperse it, that we scoop it up, that we burn it, that we do all those kinds of things so that it can't get to shore and do damage to our wetlands, damage businesses that are on the coast.

I've sent down representatives from the Justice Department to examine what our options are with regard to the activities that occurred there and whether or not there has been misfeasance, malfeasance on the part of BP or Oceana (ph).

So we're looking at that situation. But as I said, our primary focus at this point -- through our Department of Homeland Security, the Interior Department -- is really try to deal with the spill.

TAPPER: All right. That's all the time we have. Attorney General Eric Holder, thank you so much for coming by.

HOLDER: Well, thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

TAPPER: And joining me now from New York, former mayor and Republican presidential candidate, Rudy Giuliani. Mr. Mayor, thanks so much for joining us.

GIULIANI: Well, thank you, Jake.

TAPPER: Now, you're a former U.S. attorney. If you had been in charge of this investigation, what -- into Faisal Shahzad, what would you do differently, if anything?

GIULIANI: Well, I would not have given him Miranda warnings after just a couple of hours of questioning. I would have instead declared him an enemy combatant, asked the president to do that, and at the same time, that would have given us the opportunity to question him for a much longer period of time. Whether it works in the case of Shahzad or it doesn't, the reality is, the better policy is to give the intelligence agents who are going to question him the maximum amount of time to question him, to check out the credibility of what he's saying.

I mean, I don't know yet what the truth is here. We shouldn't. I mean, I think too much has been leaked about this, and the administration has talked too much about it, because the more you talk about it, the more you warn people in the Taliban to go hide somewhere.

When I was a prosecutor and associate attorney general, the last thing in the world I wanted to do is to have the other side figure out, you know, the information we had before we had a chance to act on it. So the reality is, just to figure -- just to get these guys to tell the truth and then to corroborate how much they're saying and for them to remember, it's going to take three, four, five days of questioning.

To cut it off after 30 or 40 minutes like they did in Detroit on Christmas Day or to cut it off after two or three hours doesn't make much sense. And if they think they need to change the law, well, my goodness, have some urgency about it and go do it. Don't just think about it.